The Importance of Recycling
Recycling refers to the process of reprocessing previously used products into raw materials to create new products. Items such as paper, glass, and plastic are recyclable wastes. Recycling is a crucial practice that reduces the consumption of our raw material resources. The importance of reprocessing these products, which are considered waste, into raw materials for nature is immense. Paper recycling is one of the significant examples of recycling that is vital for nature. Every year, 2.1 billion tons of waste are produced worldwide. It’s hard even to imagine such an amount of waste. Humans produce enough waste each year to fill 800,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The amount of waste produced varies from country to country. One of the worst countries in this regard is the USA. The amount of waste produced per capita in the USA can reach three times the average. Only 35% of all this waste is recycled. Germany is the leading country in the world in terms of waste recycling. Germany significantly contributes to recycling by recycling 68% of its waste. Globally, this rate is not as high. Only about 54% of the 2.1 billion tons of waste produced annually worldwide is recycled. The rest is discarded as non-recyclable waste. Unfortunately, the issue of recycling in Turkey is not very bright. In our country, 6 million tons of recyclable waste are produced annually. However, 5 million tons of this waste are not recycled. This is one of the data indicating that our country needs to focus more on recycling. Recycling can be done on many different types of waste, with glass, plastic, paper, batteries, and household waste being the primary ones. Paper recycling stands out among these because it is directly related to the preservation of forests. Approximately 2 billion trees are cut down each year for paper production. This is equivalent to about 18 million acres of forest land. Protecting trees is achieved through recycling. Recycling 1 ton of paper prevents 17 trees from being cut down. The way to protect forests, considered the lungs of the world, is through recycling.
Figures on Paper Production, Consumption, and Recycling
Today, paper consumption is critically important, especially in offices and schools. Therefore, billions of people consume millions of papers each year, and this number is increasing. Since the raw material and production source of paper are trees, this consumption significantly affects the number of trees and forests. For example, in Turkey, annual paper consumption is about 6 million tons. Per capita paper consumption is approximately 70 kilograms. The situation in the world is not different. Many trees are cut down each year for paper production. Globally, 15 billion trees are cut down annually for paper production, while only 5 billion trees are planted in return. This means that forested areas are decreasing more each year. To meet paper consumption, approximately 2 tons of different types of trees need to be cut down for each ton of paper pulp produced. Cutting down 20 trees can produce 80 boxes or approximately 200,000 sheets of A4 paper. In Turkey, 7 trees are cut down per capita for consumed paper products. In offices, schools, and official institutions, we use about 80 kilograms of paper for unnecessary correspondence, which equates to the cutting down of 1 tree. The amount of paper consumed per capita annually worldwide is 78.3 kilograms. Thus, Turkey’s paper consumption is roughly equal to the world average. Recycling this paper is crucial to prevent further reduction of our forests. If we can reduce unnecessary correspondence, we can save 2 million trees from being cut down and conserve paper and production. Despite these efforts, the paper recycling rate in our country is limited to 40%. The goal is to increase this rate to 60% within the next five years through the steps taken and the directions towards recycling. Today, it is possible to save one tree for every 70 kilograms of paper recycled. If we can cut down global paper consumption by half, we can save 8 million hectares of forested land.